Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Estinton' 1250–75 CirenP

• Esterston' 1320 Ass2

• Estyngton 1535 VE

• Estenton 1609 FF

• Eastington 1626 Inq

• Sudtone 1086 DB

Etymology

Eastington, Estinton '1250–75CirenP , Esterston ' (sic) 1320Ass 2, Estyngton 1535 VE, Estenton 1609FF , Eastington 1626 Inq. This type of p.n., which is repeated in Siddington (81infra ) and Westington (239infra ) as well as in another example of Eastington (171infra ), is discussed in Wo 60 (s.n. Sodington) and Bd 109 (s.n. Seddington), where the latter names are interpreted as 'farmstead of those dwelling south of the village' from an OE  sūðinga -tūn .There can be no doubt about the general sense on topographical grounds and from the fact that some of these p.ns. have alternative forms, like Sudtone 1086 DB for Sodington (Wo 60), Suþtun 825 BCS 386 for Sinton (Wo 128), both from sūð 'south', and Sudurton c. 1200 for Suddington (Wo 271) from sūðerra 'southern'. But no spellings in OE  -inga - or ME  -inge - have been found for any of these names which would point to a folk-name in -ingas (gen.pl. -inga ); the OE form of Sodington (Wo)Suþintuna gemæru c. 957 (11th) BCS 1007 and most ME  spellings have medial -in - (and not -inge - which we should expect from Sūðinga -tūn ). Ekwall's suggestion (DEPN xviii) that these are in fact elliptical names and denote '(land) east, south, etc. in the village' has much to commend it (cf. also EPN i, 281, and v. sūð , ēast , etc., in , tūn ). Normally we should expect such names to denote part of the main village settlement, and certain names like Eastington itself (which lies immediately east of Ampney St Peter village) or Westington (which is the south-western part of Chipping Campden) in fact satisfy this condition. But there are others like Siddington and Eastington (81, 171infra ) or Sodington (Wo) where the places are not a contiguous part of the parent settlement and the meaning '(land) south in the village' is not strictly accurate unless tūn is used in some such sense as 'township, district'; this seems to be the most acceptable explanation, esp. in cases like Downton (ii, 198infra ), or Sinton (Wo 128) which is not south of the village of Grimley but is in the southern part of the parish.In some of these names we may also have the OE adverbial form (be) sūðan, (be) ēastan, etc. again used in elliptical formations to denote '(land) south, east, etc. of the village'.